Harvest Moon: A New Start?
by Latias-Saphira
Summary: When May's parents died, she didn't expect to be sent off to a town she didn't remember, much less run a ranch there practically on her own! Of course, other dangers await her...who knew guys could be so dangerous?
1. Loss and Gain: Farming Basics

Summary: When May's parents passed away, she had no idea she'd be inheriting a ranch slash farm

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**Author's Note:** I loved the game so much (Harvest Moon DS Cute) I decided to make a FanFic of it. Plus, I went through some of this as well, I just overly-dramatized it...I think. . Oh, I know that the entire first scene is copied word for word, but we'll all live, the other scenes won't be like that. 3 I'll be changing them a bit to suit me and my character. But I'll try and keep everyone else as in character as possible.

Also, in the game, the character may NOT have lost both their parents, but it makes it a little easier for me if she has.

HARVEST MOON: A NEW START?

Bright sunlight was just beginning to reflect off of the window panes of what seemed like a recently-built house, threatening to blind those who dared look directly at it. If you had looked in through the window, however, you probably wouldn't have seen anything completely out of the ordinary. Sure, there was more than a slight lack of furniture, with only a bookcase to adorn one wall, a red chest pressed into the corner nearest the only door with a small wooden table with only a phone to decorate it on top nearby, with a slightly taller table next to it with some blank records on top and a calendar on the far wall near the bookcase. And the small bed with slightly faded pink covers and a fluffy white pillow was nothing too exciting. Even the brown-haired girl with her hair tied back into a ponytail with bangs hanging carelessly in front of her peaceful face wasn't terribly exciting.

But then again, generally the important things in a room are those that are invisible to humans. And the Harvest Goddess could do just this, as could the Sprites who helped her.

The Harvest Goddess shook her head and sighed as she said dejectedly, "This kid won't do any work whatsoever...Everything I say goes in one ear and out the other. If something isn't done, the Harvest King is sure to punish her."

She sounded slightly worried as she added, "This kid's mother asked me to make sure that her child would work with passion...But she has no work ethic whatsoever."

Sighing and laughing slightly, the green-haired goddess laughed slightly and said simply, "It's impossible. I'll just tell the kid's mother that it's hopeless."

Suddenly, the ground beneath them jerked and shook, though all of them were only slightly jarred somehow. Maybe they had gotten used to it over the years.

"What are you saying?!" A voice thundered out of nowhere.

"That voice...the Harvest King!" The Harvest Goddess said to herself, cursing herself for being so loud.

"Are you the Harvest King?" Asked Wooly, one of the red-clad sprites.

"Quitting already?!" The Harvest King boomed, ignoring the little sprite. "You call yourself the Harvest Goddess? You always give up without really trying!"

"It's not like I can make someone work if they don't want to," the Harvest Goddess snapped back defensively.

"It's your duty as the Harvest Goddess to figure out a way! You're starting to loaf on the job in your old age!"

He'd hit a nerve, anyone in the room (save for the sleeping girl) could tell.

"W-What?!" The Goddess screeched, glaring at the ceiling. "Age has nothing to do with it, you big baldy!"

The tiny house began to shake again, and the King stuttered in a slightly menacing tone, "B-Baldy? W-Why you! You've crossed the line! Take this!!"

Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of white light, and the sprites were forced to cover their eyes. When the light faded and they lowered their arms, however, all cried out in horror and anger.

"You're a mean Harvest King! Change her back!" demanded Wooly.

"That's why people call you names like 'baldy'!" Bran, another sprite but dressed in orange, piped up.

"Baldy!" Kali, a third yellow sprite cried. "BALDY!"

"Silence!" The Harvest King practically screamed in frustration. "You all are to blame, too!! You all need to reflect on what you did!!"

The ground began to shake for a third time, but before any of the sprites could utter a sound, they all suddenly disappeared, including the statuefied Harvest Goddess.

The King cleared his throat and said in a slightly meek tone, "Oops! I got a little carried away. This isn't good...But it is a good opportunity to make them think about what they did."

Reflecting on the reason why the Goddess had been there in the first place, he said with a small sigh, "However, the Harvest Goddess did tell that mother that she would help her child...Hmm, what to do...?"

Not long later...

"...Wake up..."

The voice came to May as if from a dream, but somehow she knew that it was reality. Confused, she slid out of bed with a puzzled look on her face to see a relatively pretty young woman about her own age (or so she assumed, she was terrible at guessing people's ages) standing a few feet in front of her.

"Oh, good, you're awake." The girl said, sounding relatively pleased. "You have a letter from the Harvest King. Read it."

_The Harvest King?_ May thought groggily to herself, taking the letter offered to her by the blonde girl and unfolding it. It read:

'Hello, this is the Harvest King. The Harvest Goddess and Harvest Sprites were punished because you didn't work. They've been sent away to another world. If you work hard and achieve your goals, I will return the Harvest Sprites and Harvest Goddess to this world. Do you understand? The two Harvest Sprites at the Harvest Sprites Station, and Guts at Harvest Sprite Inc. are still in this world, so they should be able to help you get started. Well, do your best.

Sincerely, the Harvest King.'

May stared blankly at the paper as she finished reading. Why in the world were the Harvest Sprites and Goddess being punished because _she_ didn't work?

"It's going to be lonely now that I have no one to argue with," the blonde woman reflected sadly. "Anyway, work very hard. I'm counting on you."

May barely noticed as the girl faded away, and she shook her head slowly as she placed the letter in one of the drawers below the phone near the foot of her bed. "Great. So, because I didn't work, they got sent to a different world, and I have to work really hard to get them back?"

No one answered her (she wasn't expecting anyone to, she would have been very afraid if someone had), and she sighed heavily. "Great. Feeling guilty and having two work hard, two of the things I hate the most. Oh, well, may as well get down to work...Fun."

She sighed continuously as she changed into her newfound work clothes from the red trunk by the phone, then put her hand on the doorknob and pushed the door open to the outside.

Her name was May. She found her last name unimportant, and could barely even remember it anymore. She had recently lost her mother to a fishing accident, and her father had passed on a few years before that for unknown reasons. Their ranch slash farm, though it was just called the ranch for short, had been left to May, and in the years they had been away from the valley, it had fallen into neglect. The man who lived beside her, Takakura, had not been taking care of the ranch because he was recovering from a recent injury to his leg, and even now he could only give May pointers and a few tiny bags of turnip seeds to plant. Of course, she'd gotten a rucksack complete with a hoe, hammer, watering can, scythe, and axe as well, but that was courtesy of the other villagers. They had know May's parents well before they moved away with their tiny daughter, and hadn't even forgotten them - or even May, which shocked her - after all these years. Plus, not to mention May felt bad she knew precious few other names. The only person she knew was Takakura, and remembered no one. And she had the feeling she was going to be taking out her map a lot.

Sighing, May reached behind her into her rucksack and pulled out the two bags of turnip seeds. Ever since she had come to the town a week and a half ago, leaving her old town behind only two days after her mother had died, Takakura had been doing his best to teach her about farm life, how to grow and harvest crops, tell when they were ripe, when they needed more time, and when they should just be chopped down without actually showing her on account of his injury. Of course, he'd only taught her the basic crops of spring. She would have to read some books on the bookcase to learn more about the other seasons, though she already knew it was impossible to grow things in winter.

She also pulled out her hoe, and started across the field to the farthest place. She had decided a few days ago that the crops would take up the far half of the field, and the barns - whenever she got any built by the town craftsman, of course, and bought animals to occupy them - would be close to her house, so if something ever went wrong, she could hurry to them without having to fight her way through areas where food grew.

Finally, she reached the edge of the field. Takakura had marked where the field was, since they had no fence, because May couldn't tell good dirt for growing crops from bad. She sighed, cursing herself for her limited knowledge, but then remembering it wasn't really her fault, and started to take her frustration over whether or not it was her fault out on the field, piercing the dirt fiercely with the hoe and rearranging the dirt like she'd been told. She ignored the rising sun and continued to work hard...just like the Harvest King had told her to do.

Suddenly furious at him for punishing others for her bad deed, May began to do her work with twice the amount of force and energy than before, letting anger fuel her muscles. Of course, there's only so long you can keep that up for.

Suddenly, May found herself gasping for breath, leaning on her hoe for support to prevent herself from collapsing. _Damn,_ she thought to herself bitterly, trying to ignore her tiredness. _I can't let that happen again...I get tired too fast._

Trying to focus her thoughts on other things and calm herself down, the brunette allowed herself a few minutes rest before starting back up again, though at a manageable pace. Unfortunately, she couldn't find a solid topic to focus her thoughts on. Memories of her with her parents made her sad, as did thinking of her old town. She tried to think about her friends...but that was hard when she didn't really have any. She could focus on her work, but she had a feeling that would just make her angry again. She really needed to learn to control her anger...

_I wonder what kinds of guys are in this village..._

The thought came from practically nowhere, and May almost recoiled at the thought. How could she think about young men at a time like this? No, no, that wouldn't do...she had to focus on her work without focusing on it. Which she quickly discovered was hard. And so her mind slid back to thinking about guys.

She remembered one particular boy from her old town, but he would only visit for one season and then leave, which was what made him no noticeable. He'd been a lot of fun, too...oh, why couldn't she remember his name? Curse her terrible memory!

It was a few minutes before she realized she had stopped, and she looked along where she had been churning up the soil. It was a relatively long line, and three-quarters of the field. Impressed with herself, May slowly started to realize she was tired.

"Ehh...but I have to plant the seeds first. Then sleep," she muttered to herself, putting her hoe back into her rucksack and untying the two small bags from her waist, where she'd put them earlier for quick usage. She opened one up and began to scatter its contents along the line she had made, and was pleased to discover that she ran out a little over halfway through. Remembering what Takakura had said about better quality crops growing if more seeds were placed in one spot, May backtracked a few steps and began to scatter the last of her seeds, walking along the line as she did so and taking care not to overlap any, or at least until she got to the end. And as predicted, when she did, she was all out.

But she couldn't go to bed yet, she remembered with a groan. She had to water them now! Looking back at the seeds, she decided quickly that she was too tired to carry on - she didn't relish the idea of fainting the first day on her new job - and that it might rain tomorrow, so she wouldn't have to water them at all. Smiling faintly to herself, May started back towards her house, looking with faint interest at the watering hole a few meters away from her home.

Suddenly, she thought she saw something sparkle.

Her eyes widened slightly, her heart racing and mind intrigued, May ran forward quickly towards the water and peered over the edge, looking desperately for a glimpse of whatever she had seen. It had look so much like blue glitter...

"Hello?" She called softly, not expecting a reply.

Except...she got one.

A blinding white light mixed with blue suddenly engulfed the water, and May stumbled back and tripped over air, landing on her butt hard. She didn't notice, however, because she was too busy staring at what had suddenly emerged in front of her.

"Oh, YEAH, I'm free already!" The creature crowed happily, looking around with glee. But the smile quickly slid from his face, and he looked at May. "You're May, right?"

"Umm...if you're going to hurt me, then no," she replied nervously, weirded out by what she had just witnessed.

The thing burst out laughing, and May noticed some faint blue sparkles above its head. "Of course not! I want to thank you for saving me!"

"I--What?"

"Oh, forgive me," he said, suddenly remembering whatever manners he had stored away in the back of his mind, not very often used. He bowed and said, "My name is Karaf. I was one of the one hundred and one spirits sent to the other world by the Harvest King...probably because of Bran, Kali, and Wooly's big mouths." He muttered the last part to himself, but May still caught it.

"So, I've somehow brought you back?" She asked, now curious because she was beginning to understand.

"It seems that way," Karaf answered. "I guess you'll find a bunch of us just by working hard at your job!"

"Hmm...Two birds with one stone," she said to herself. Her guilt could slowly start slipping away as she found the other sprites and eventually the Harvest Goddess herself, and of course she could find them by working hard, which was exactly what was expected of her. Seemed okay to her.

"Well, anyways, thanks again May!" Karaf said cheerfully. "I've gotta go tell the others I'm back...since Guts and two others weren't with us. Ah, well, I'll be able to help you around the ranch one day, May! Thanks again!"

She smiled. "No problem. I'll do my best to find the others."

"Excellent! But remember, the Indigo team rules all!" He crowed, disappearing in a flash of sparkling blue light.

Smiling faintly to herself, May got up, dusted herself off, and headed into her house, ready to settle down into bed and prepare for the next day. After all, if she was going to find all one hundred and one sprites, plus the Harvest Goddess, she was going to need all the energy and time she could get!

And, she thought to herself drowsily as she climbed into bed and began to drift off, I'll go down to the village tomorrow and try and learn everyone's names...maybe I'll even find a nice guy...

And she drifted off to sleep, her mind filled with thoughts of the nameless boy she could remember from her old town, wondering why she could not remember his name, and why she was even remembering him at all...

--

**Author's Note:** If anything seems weird with this chapter, tell me, because my computer's acting funny. Anyways, review, reviews, reviews, please, otherwise I lose the heart to continue! I'm being bad by posting up a chapter and having no others in words! Ah, well...REVIEW!


	2. Meeting the Villagers and Some

Author's Note: I'm not sure whether the last chapter was too long or too short (personally, I thought it was kinda short), I think I might include a Heart Event in this one

**Author's Note:** I'm not sure whether the last chapter was too long or too short (personally, I thought it was kinda short), I think I might include a Heart Event in this one...just one though. (Also, Heart Events will probably be mostly word-for-word. May'll just talk more.)

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HARVEST MOON: A NEW START?

"Blahhhhh..."

May sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes as her alarm clock went off. Groggily, she reached over and whacked it on top to shut it off, then went over to the red chest by the phone and started to change into her blue set of clothes. She had made her decision on what to do today last night shortly before going to bed (before the guy thing): Get up, water the crops, clear the field of weeds, branches, and stones, then go into town and try to meet everyone and memorize their names.

She had already figured out the last part would be tough, and meeting people would be no easy feat, either. She was kind of shy, and disliked talking to people she didn't know. But, as she reminded herself, she would never get comfortable talking to anyone if she didn't begin now.

Sighing at herself, May left her small home and walked towards the watering hole, smiling grimly as she remembered the shock she had received yesterday when Karaf had been discovered. She took out her watering can at the edge, got to her knees and started to fill up the can, until it was full. However, since it was tiny, she couldn't water a lot before having to refill again. She figured she had enough for the turnips she'd planted, since there wasn't much.

--

About twenty minutes later, she was finished and already headed downwards toward town. She glanced back at her field, knowing she'd soon regret not cleaning it up, but kept going. She wanted more time to meet the villagers, since she wanted to see them all today.

_Especially the guys..._

Ignoring this thought, May finally stepped onto the flat, cobbled path that led around to various parts of the main part of town. She looked around, trying to decide where to go, when she suddenly realized it was only about six-thirty in the morning. Who was up at six-thirty in the morning? Apart from herself and other farmers, of course, but still...

She shook her head at her own stupidity and started off down the path, then turned to the right out of instinct, wondering vaguely what drew her. She past a few silent houses and kept moving on, until she noticed that the path went to the right again. Seeing as how the only other ways were down towards a small field and back to the rest of the Main Square (as she suddenly began to think of it as), she went north and soon found herself on smooth, white stairs. Curious, she began to climb them.

The mansion May suddenly noticed in front of her was huge! Well, compared to her house, at the very least. Intrigued, she rushed forward across the brick path and around the square fountain and slowly opened the door, peeking inside. A staircase was placed on both of the third lines (the invisible line that separated every third in the mansion had a staircase sitting on it), an embroidered red carpet led from the entrance to the door about fifteen meters in front of her, and also up the stairs. Two pictures hung on either side of the door, and a vase of flowers was sitting not far from it as well. In the southeastern corner sat a grand piano, while in the southwest, a table and red couch rested. Each of the two thirds on the western and eastern sides of the place led to doors.

Completely losing her head that she wasn't supposed to just barge into someone else's home, especially this early, May slowly walked towards the eastern door beside the staircase on the right, looking around and admiring the artwork on the walls and just the architecture itself. When she reached the door, the slowly opened it and looked inside. Three windows with white curtains sat on the opposite grey wall, and underneath one was a fairly large desk, complete with a white-shaded lamp and some books. On the left wall was a bed with green covers, and the northeastern corner held some drawers.

Plus, an old man was standing right in front of it. And he had already noticed her.

"Oh!" May said, shocked and completely embarrassed, turning bright red. "Umm..."

"Oh, 'tis good to have some company!" The man said pleasantly. "Especially from you, May! What brings you here?"

Not losing a single shade of red from her face, May replied timidly, "Well, I'm going around the town and trying to meet everyone and memorize their names, since I don't remember and I'm going to be staying here for a long time. Of course, I just realized no one would really be up this early..."

The man laughed. "Not a problem, not a problem. I am Sebastian, simple enough to remember, I suppose. 'Tis a shame you do not remember any of us, but it cannot be helped. After all, not even a year had passed after you were born before your parents moved away. Oddly enough, I no longer remember why..."

She smiled weakly. "Neither do I. Anyways, it was nice meeting you...again, I think."

He laughed and replied, "And it was nice to see you again, young May. Good luck meeting everyone."

"Thank you," she said politely, then left and shut the door behind her. She pondered Sebastian's parting words as she moved to the western door, wondering what he had meant.

It didn't take her long to reach the other door, but when she went inside, all that was there was a fridge, microwave, dishware in a glass cupboard, and a sink and stove. Mildly pleased she didn't have to have another embarrassing encounter with someone, she shut the door and headed towards the door in the center, across from the entrance. Here, she met another old person.

The room was quite large, larger than her own home. There was a canopy bed in the corner, a large fireplace in the middle of the far wall, and a bookcase beside it. A few flowers in vases on tables were against the walls in various parts of the room. May practically jumped when she heard someone ask, "Who are you, my dear?"

Trying to regain herself (her red face not included), May stammered, "I-I'm May, from the northern ranch...I moved here nearly two weeks ago..."

"Ah, yes, May! I remember you!" said the woman pleasantly. "Terribly sorry, but my mind is going as my age climbs. How are you, May?"

"Erm...quite good, thank you. And...Who might you be, may I ask?"

"Romana, my dear, though I would be shocked if you remembered!" Romana replied with a smile. "However, I must be rude now and ask that you leave, seeing as how I am about to have breakfast."

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry to have interrupted you, Romana!" May exclaimed with a small bow (because she felt like it and thought it seemed better if she did), backing out the door. "It was nice meeting you."

"You as well, my dear," Romana replied as May shut the door.

Beginning to wonder if this was an old folk home, May walked up one of the staircases only to discover they both led to the same place. Shrugging slightly, she went up the only staircase that was there and went to the second floor, only to encounter yet another door. Rolling her eyes, May opened the door and went inside.

The room here was about the same size as Romana's, except with flowery carpeting, tall, slim windows, a table and chair in the middle, a pink-covered bed in one of the corners, and a fireplace against the left wall. A girl around May's age stood near the table, and looked towards the door when May entered curiously. "Hello. Who are you?"

May grinned slightly. She was a bit more at ease around people her own age. "I'm May, new to the town. I own the ranch up north. What about you?"

"I'm Lumina," she replied. "Why are you here?"

This made her turn red. "Well, see, I'm going around and trying to meet all the villagers, since I don't remember anyone..."

--

This went on for the rest of the day, and by the end of it, May was pretty sure she'd met pretty much everyone, and was quite proud of herself for remembering most of their names. There was Carter and Flora, both who lived in the northeastern most part of town a tent, close to the Excavation Site where they stayed every day and large fields where random things grew. Below them resided Marlin, Vesta, and Ceila, and the farm that they managed together but Vesta owned, and Marlin was about her own age. Even farther south than them lived Galen and Nina, an aged couple whose house was on top of a small hill in the middle of a large field. East of them was where Gustafa's Yurt was, and Gustafa was just a bit older than May was. Turtle Swamp sat farther east than that, and to the left was Cody's Studio, as well as where the pyrotechnic twins Patrick and Kassey lived. South of Turtle Swamp was the beach, where a snack shack that opened in the summer - or so she'd been told - sat, and where festivals were held.

In the Main Square, May had discovered the Inner Inn and met Ruby and Rock, who was a blonde boy who was also around May's age. To the east of the Inn was the Blue Bar, where Griffin and Muffy worked and lived. Griffin was older than May, but not by a lot, and she found she enjoyed being around him (even though she was still nervous, she couldn't help it). The occupants of the three houses above the bar were Dr. Hardy of the eastern most house, Grant and Kate in the center one, and Hugh, Wally, and Chris lived in the far western one.

She felt very proud of herself, and she hadn't written down a thing. Of course, she'd wasted an entire day of work, really...all she'd done on the ranch was water the turnips. May promised herself she would work hard tomorrow as she climbed into bed, and quickly fell asleep thinking about all of the villagers, and how really, none of the guys grabbed her attention...

--

The next morning, May woke up at six A.M again, and as she tiredly changed, she looked at the phone and noticed for the first time that there were programmed numbers on it. Confused, she tried to remember if Takakura had even talked about this, but she could recall nothing.

Now curious, she picked up the phone and pressed the key marked 'Poultry'.

"Sorry, but we're not open right now! Please call back during business hours!" A voice chirped over the phone. It sounded a bit to May like a recording, but she had never met this girl before, or she just couldn't place her voice. Eventually figuring out that it was a shop, she put the phone down and examined the other numbers. She gave a start when she saw the last number ('May's Tailoring') and thought for a few fleeting moments that she had a shop. She eventually realized that her parents had originally been farmers, not shop owners. Her mother couldn't stitch two pieces of fabric together if her life depended on it.

May turned away from the phone, her vision blurry. She couldn't think about that...not now. She had work to do. Trying to push all thoughts but those of work from her mind, she left the house and went over to the watering hole to fill up her watering can, preparing to water her crops again. After filling up the can, she went over to the turnips, and was finished watering them within ten minutes. Now...she had little left to do.

"Oh great," she muttered to herself. "Now what?"

She looked around the field and realized she still hadn't cleaned it up. Rolling her eyes at herself, May set to work pulling up the weeds and placing them in her rucksack to ship later, and using her axe and hammer to chop and smash branches and rocks for lumber and material stone. She knew she'd need them later for animal barns and bird sheds, not to mention a bunch of other buildings. Sighing as she realized how long this was actually going to take her, May decided to start with the Lumber and Material Stone Sheds Takakura had told her about. It would be much easier to store it in a shed than having to carry it around everywhere.

She headed over to the shipping bin after she'd finished with the field and put all of the weeds she'd pulled up into it, figuring she may as well get a little extra money from her work. But now, she had no clue what to do. Again.

Finally, after standing in front of the bin for half an hour trying to think of something to do, she decided to wander around, greet people, and explore a bit more. She hadn't been to the beach yet, and she needed to pass the time until tonight. She wanted to see the town in the dark.

--

May had been almost everywhere now today, and was headed to the beach as her last stop. The sun was going to set soon, so she knew she didn't have much longer to wait. Plus, the sunset would be gorgeous on the beach. You could never really see it properly where she used to live, and so in all reality, she'd never really seen one.

As she stepped foot on the sand, she noticed one boy was still there, and she recognized him as Rock. Curious, she went over to him and said, "Hey Rock, what's up?"

"Hm?" He replied, looking around to see who it was. His face split into a grin when he quickly recognized her and replied, "Hey May. Did you come to look at the sea, too?"

She nodded and said, "Well, the sea and the sunset."

He grinned. "The sea's so nice. It's so expansive...Just so beautiful and blue! I love to look at it. Plus, it matches my personality perfectly! It's so big and beautiful. Just like me."

May sweatdropped slightly as she thought to herself for a moment, _Kinda egotistic, eh?_

However, Rock misunderstood her silence. "What's wrong? You got quiet all of a sudden...Oh, I know!" He looked to May like he was about to sing. She hoped he wouldn't. "You've been taken aback by how cool I am, right?"

Well, now she was. Well, the taken aback part, at least... "Yeah, I'm mesmerized," she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. One of her bad habits was using sarcasm a little too much.

And it seemed as though Rock didn't have the faintest idea what sarcasm was. "Yes, I thought so! You can look at me all you want! I'm not shy! But you have to let me look at you too, then."

At this, May turned the brightest red possible, and she turned away. Stupid nerves.

Rock was silent for a few moments, and then started laughing. She looked over at him questioningly, and he said, "Hahaha, you're pretty funny, May. You won't even look at me!"

Somehow, May turned even a deeper shade of red (she was sure it was from her head down to her toes) and said quickly, "I have to go check on my crops," before dashing away, thoroughly embarrassed.

As she ran, she caught Rock saying, "Awww, you're so shy that you're leaving! How cute!"

_Jeez, have you ever got it wrong,_ she thought to herself bitterly. She shouldn't have egged him on...she wasn't interested in him like that. A friend, maybe, but boyfriend? She didn't think so.

It was dark now, probably around ten o'clock, and somehow, May misjudged where she was and ended up on the stairs leading up to the mansion-like house where she'd met Sebastian, Lumina, and Romana. Sighing and now tired, she was about to turn around when she heard a voice behind her say, "Hehe. Hello, beautiful. Walking alone at night?"

May froze and turned around slowly. Standing only a few meters away from her was a boy she'd never met before. He had nearly shoulder-length silver hair and a nice face, and was wearing relatively loose purple pants and a grayish-silver shirt with what kind of seemed to be like a cheetah print. He seemed to be an incredibly casual person, and...Near her own age.

May could feel blood rushing to her face, and when she did not reply, he said, "Hehe, I'm quite the ladies' man, and a prince of the stars."

Surprised, May stammered, "How can you be a prince of the stars and be down here?"

Before he could answer, May heard a door open up near the mansion, and she looked over to see Lumina walking out, apparently starting to go on a stroll herself. She stopped when she spotted the silvery-haired boy and exclaimed, "Hey! Aren't you that famous thief who warns his victims ahead of time?!"

Now May was completely confused, but the boy replied, still looking carefree, "Hehe. Sorry, but I'm a bit pressed for time. I'm about to jet out."

He began to walk down the staircase to leave, but then he turned around and added, "Hehe, call me Phantom Skye. I have a feeling we'll meet again. It's in the stars."

May was still lost, but before she could say anything, Lumina raced towards Skye and said angrily, "Hold it right there!"

"Hehe, hold up, beautiful," Skye replied smoothly. "Don't let such raw anger steal away your beauty."

Lumina seemed to be torn, trying to decide whether she was angry or flattered. Finally, she said quietly, so May could barely hear, "What a smooth talker...Phantom Skye..."

As Skye turned and walked off, Lumina followed him. May was still rooted to the spot, completely lost in the dark. But she realized that she had other emotions alongside confusion. She was quite flattered by Phantom Skye's talk, but there was something else...

She looked over towards the stairs as Lumina came back, looking slightly annoyed and yet embarrassed at the same time. "Phantom Skye! He...he got away from me!"

May sweatdropped, and as she began to head back to the ranch and passed Lumina, she heard her whisper, "Hehehe, that thief is so cool!"

Anger surged through her veins, and as May started off down the path east that led to her ranch, she realized the other emotion: Jealously. Or something along those lines. She didn't want Lumina liking Skye, and she didn't want him sweet-talking her. She vaguely wondered why, and she only realized it right before she fell asleep in bed:

_She_ loved him.

--

**Author's Note:** Okay, I put in two and maybe got a little carried away with this chapter. The scenes aren't perfect and exact because in the game, your character doesn't talk a lot, but I did my best. Please, PLEASE, review! Otherwise I'll think no one's reading it / every hates it, so I won't keep writing the chapters!


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